The first of four Texas Water Symposia will be held Thursday, Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Boerne Convention Center. This symposium makes connections between population growth in the Hill Country, impacts on land and water and mitigation and planning.
Sean Garretson, president of Pegasus Planning will speak on the Hill Country Alliance 2030 study of projected population increases in the Texas Hill Country, which will impact water availability and land use. Pegasus is an award-winning development consultant firm.

Chad Norris, aquatic biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife also will speak, with an update on Gunnar Brune’s “The Springs of Texas,” a book that served as a springboard for Norris’ own study of Texas springs, status and characteristics. Brune wrote, “ In the not very distant future most of Texas’ springs will exist only in a legend of a glorious past when mankind was one with, and reveled in, nature.”

This year, Schreiner University, Texas Tech University and Texas Public Radio are joined as sponsors by Hill Country Alliance to present the series of four lectures and forums about Texas water issues, aquifer, river and bay sustainability, science and policy of water issues, watershed management and planning, and the role of conservation and education.

HCA is a non-profit whose purpose is to raise public awareness and build community support around the need to preserve the natural resources and heritage of the Central Texas Hill Country. For more information, visit www.hillcountryalliance.org.

The remaining three symposia will be November 13 in San Antonio; January 29, 2009, in Fredericksburg; and March 12 at Schreiner in Kerrville.

These events are free and open to the public. All of the water forums are taped and aired on Texas Public Radio.

For more information about the series, check the Web at www.schreiner.edu/water  or contact Bob Hickerson or Dr. Tom Arsuffi at 325-446-2301, bob.hickerson@ttu.edu or tom.arsuffi@ttu.edu; or Dr. Mike Looney at Schreiner University, 830-792-7371 or mlooney@schreiner.edu .